Could College & University Recycling Coalition Survey Show Trends Beyond COVID-19?

A coalition of partners, including USCC, collected data in Q4 2020 from a follow-up survey to our late-summer scan of the pandemic’s impact on campus composting and recycling programs.

The summer survey noted trends toward major reorganizations of collection operations shifts from reusables to single-use disposables and towards to-go dining operations. The follow-up survey sought to dig deeper into the trends to find long-term impacts. Busch Systems’ Alec Cooley put together the data received from the second survey in a fascinating blog post showing:

• self-service-based deskside collections or a hybrid of self-service and custodial service.
• a trend toward removing waste bins from classrooms and meeting rooms (an "all-in-the-hall” system).
• a troubling but not unexpected impact of reduction in operating budgets, in recycling staffs, and reduction in capital budgets for bins or other infrastructure.

"PPE and food packaging are particularly treacherous areas for the average person’s understanding of recyclability and compost-ability,” Cooley noted, as "a number of schools cited their increased usage as the cause of growing contamination rates.”

So far 131 institutions have responded to the survey, administered by partners Busch Systems, CURC, USCC, the Zero Waste Campus Council and the NRC Campus Council. It is open until January 22; the link can be found in the blog post.